Issue 70, published in Volume 7, is the 70th chapter of the manga. The tagline for this chapter reads: 'This story is a record of the battles without humanity and honor involving all students.'
Page Titles[]
- Motivation
- Eyes Of Contempt
- Nozaki's Magic
- Your Crush's Position
- Great Promotion
- Juliet Is Desperate
- An Overwhelming Enemy
- Jealousy
- All Because Of Love
- Narrow-Minded People
- What Is Going On
- The Bewilderment Of Reality
Summary[]
At school, ball events for the upcoming sports festival are being decided. The majority of the class are scrambling to get into basketball, volleyball or soccer. However, Mikoshiba is determined to enter table tennis. His friends ask him why he is so unmotivated, to which Mikoshiba admits that he just doesn't like to exercise. Table tennis would be easy to 'skimp out' on. Yet when the time came to do rock-paper-scissors in order to decide table tennis teams, everybody participated despite their previous disdain.
Sakura approaches Mikoshiba in the corridor and asks him what ball event he decided to enter. Sakura herself had joined table tennis. Filled with bitter rage, Mikoshiba scolds her for 'running away and taking the easy road'. As it turns out, he had lost the rock-paper-scissors battle for table tennis and ended up in soccer. Sakura is stunned by Mikoshiba's evil glare but admits that she may have taken the easy road. Meanwhile, one of Mikoshiba's classmates informs him that a spot had opened up in table tennis. He immediately high-fives Sakura with an exaggerated smile, declaring them teammates.
Pensively, Sakura asks Mikoshiba whether Nozaki is participating in basketball. Mikoshiba is uncertain, but asks Sakura why she wants to know. It turns out that she is worried that Nozaki will become more popular if he plays basketball, which she is highly against. Mikoshiba is confused. Sakura tells the story of how Nozaki became popular last year when he demonstrated his basketball skills at the sports festival. However, his popularity died down after two weeks after girls began resenting aspects of his personality.
Yet Sakura is still worried that first-years may look up to Nozaki as a 'senpai' after watching him play basketball. Mikoshiba wonders why Sakura would not want her crush to be extremely popular, like Suzuki. Sakura argues that Suzuki is different to Nozaki. She points to a minor character in 'Let's Fall in Love', comparing him to Nozaki. Mikoshiba exclaims that he is just 'the guy who ends up letting people know they've got someone to see them'. On second thought, Sakura points to a huge crowd of students in the manga. Mikoshiba asks her which student she wants Nozaki to be (since they have no identifying features).
Nozaki himself approaches. Much to Sakura's disapproval, Mikoshiba tells him that she is a fan of 'the guy who ends up letting people know they've got someone to see them'. Nozaki is not sure why she is interested in this character, however, he decides to draw a side story featuring him as the protagonist as 'a little service' for Sakura. The story features the character (who has been named Tayama) revealing that he is heir to a large company. Sakura exclaims that Nozaki 'doesn't understand', but commends Tayama's storyline for being interesting anyway.
To a classmate, Nozaki recounts telling Sakura that he is doing basketball at the sports festival. His classmate assumes that she was upset because, being from their rival class 2-A, she wouldn't want him to defeat her. Drawing from this advice, Nozaki concludes that Sakura is now his opponent, if only for one day. He comes across Sakura talking to Kashima in the hallway. Kashima says that she may once again be participating in the boys' matches if there are any vacancies. Sakura tells her to 'beat and crush him beyond recovery' if she faces up against Nozaki. He overhears this and is shocked.
Kashima puts two and two together, realizing that Sakura wants her to prevent Nozaki from becoming popular. Sakura insists that she 'steal Nozaki's spotlight' because no matter who the opponent is, she believes that Kashima can win. However, Kashima admits there is one opponent she is weak against. Last year in the basketball match, she had passed the ball to Hori despite him being on the opposing team. Sakura compares her loyalty to that of a dog returning a toy to its owner.
Sakura approaches Wakamatsu and asks if he is also doing basketball as 'he seems like he would be popular'. Overhearing this, Seo scoffs that someone in the basketball club participating in the basketball event would be foul play. Wakamatsu wonders why she is in such a bad mood. Sakura reveals that Seo is jealous that her classmates didn't allow her to join the basketball event. This is because they are confident she would eliminated for fouls. Wakamatsu states bluntly that she is just getting what she deserves.
Stuck in table tennis, Seo tells Wakamatsu to come cheer her on at the event but he refuses. She tells him of her intention to cheer him on at his event, which only causes him to refuse further. Turning to Sakura, Wakamatsu tells her that he might come to cheer on Nozaki with her. Sakura adamantly refuses, insisting that she wants him to lose. This leads Wakamatsu to question whether the two are good friends. Sakura goes on to say that she is still looking forward to it and will be there to watch from front row seats. Wakamatsu questions her true intent once again.
Having both purchased drinks from the vending machine, Mikoshiba telling Hori that Sakura wants to do something about Nozaki becoming popular. Hori calls Sakura 'unexpectedly narrow-minded'. Mikoshiba internally commends him for being so mature and refusing to harbor any jealousy towards Kashima. He goes on to ask Hori how Nozaki's match went the previous year. However, Hori cannot seem to remember anything about Nozaki as his mind is occupied by Kashima's skill at volleyball, basketball, soccer and that 'her reversal shot was really good'. Mikoshiba remarks that Hori may actually be the one with a narrow point of view.
Nozaki is 'terrified' at the prospect of being Sakura's enemy for the sports festival. One of his classmates informs him that he had been switched over to table tennis, because he had said that he didn't want to do basketball. This makes Nozaki even more scared since Sakura is in table tennis. He assumes that she will be even more motivated to beat him to a pulp now that they are in the same event. But when the time comes for his match, Sakura, Seo and Mikoshiba all turn up and are cheering him on with vigor.
During a meeting at Monthly Girls' Romance, Nozaki shows Ken a draft that he had drawn based on his experiences at the sports festival. In the draft, Mamiko overhears one of her classmates telling another girl to beat her to a pulp during the volleyball match. She ends up convinced that the sports festival is actually 'an all-student battle without humanity and honor'. However, Suzuki saves the day by offering her a ping-pong ball. In the end, all the students happily play table tennis together; quote - 'Table tennis is the sport of love.' Ken is stunned.
Characters in Order of Appearance[]
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